Adding device.



' No. 700,448. Patented May 20, I902.

H. A. SMITH.

AD D ING DEVICE.

(Application filed. Jan. 3; 1902.\

(No Model.)

lllalllllllnllll UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HORACE A. SMITH, or CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA.

ADDING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 700,448, dated May 20, 1902.

Application filed January 3, 1902. Serial No. 88,269. (No model.)

To a whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HORACE A. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cedar Rapids, in the county of Linn and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Adding Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to registers or calculating devices, and has special reference to an improved device of this character designed for addition or counting purposes to insure accuracy in adding columns of figures besides relieving the mind to a large extent of the mental fatigue of adding and verifying columns of figures.

To this end the invention contemplates a very simple and practical form of device which is designed to be conveniently held in the hand in the same Way as a pencil, and may therefore be properly termed an adding-pencil, inasmuch as the point of the device may be carried along or over a column of figures in the same manner as a pencil, and it will only be necessary to exert a slight pressure upon this point to efiect a registering of the numbers added, the addition usually being carried on by tens.

With these and many other objects in view the invention consists of certain novel features of construction, combination, and arrangement of parts, which will be hereinafter more fully described,illustrated,and claimed.

The essential features of the invention are necessarily susceptible to structural modification without departing from the spirit or scope thereof; but the preferred embodiment of the improvement is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1' is a perspective view of an addingpencil constructed in accordance with the present invention. Fig. 2 is an edge view or elevation thereof, showing the graduated register-slide. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the entire device or pencil. Fig. 4. is an elevation of a portion'of the pencil or device with the cover of the casing removed. Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view on the line 4: 1 of Fig. 4..

Like reference-numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

In carrying out the invention the working parts of the device or pencil may necessarily be housed in any suitable manner so long as the essential operative relation is maintained; but a preferred construction and arrangement of the different instrumentalities constituting the pencil is shown in the drawings, and, referring to the latter, the numeral 1 designates the main casing, within which are inclosed the principal cooperating parts which secure the step-by-step action of the registering member to be presently referred to. The casing 1 may be of any suitable shape or size which will permit of it being handled in the same manner as an ordinary pencil, but is preferably of an oblong rectangular form, as shown in the drawings, and essentially consists of a hollow body portion 2 and a cover plate 3, fitting over the open side thereof and detachably held in place by screws or equivalent fastenings 4. The casing 1 is provided in one of its walls, preferably adjacent to one corner thereof, with a channel or groove 5, slidably engaged by the rib 6, formed longitudinally on one side of the slide 7, which constitutes the registering member of the device. The register-slide 7 is thus held to a fixed sliding plane within one side of the inclosing casing 1, and the latter is further provided at one end and within the longitudinal plane of the guideway 5 with an end opening 8, through which the register-slide 7 is proj ected to expose the numbers and graduations upon the graduated face 9 thereof.

The register-slide 7 is provided upon what may be properly termed its inner edge with a longitudinal series of ratchet-teeth 10, adapted to be engaged by the point 11 of the actuating-dog 12, rigidly carried by the inner end of the operating-plunger or plunger-stem 13, which extends substantially the entire length of the casing 1 and also through a guide-tube 14, carried at one end of the casing. This guide-tube 14. is threaded or otherwise suitably connected at its inner end, as at 15, to one end of the casing 1 and is of a sufficient length to make the combined length of the casing and the tube substantially the same as the ordinary length of pencils, whereby the device may be readily handled in the same manner as a pencil. The guide-tube 1 1 is provided at its outer end with a terminal guiding-bore 16, within which slidably registers the enlarged exposed pressure-point 17, provided at the outer end of the plungerstem 13 and constituting the exterior operat ing member or element of the device and which is designed to be carried over a column of figures in the same manner as a pencilpoint.

The register-slide 7 is provided at its inner end with a laterally-projecting limiting-stop 18, adapted to engage with one of the screws 4 or other fixed abutment within the casing to arrest the slide at its extreme limit of movement, and the proper action of the plunger, as well as of the dog 12, is secured through the medium of a single resetting-spring 19, disposed obliquely between the actuating-dog 12 and the adjacent end of the casing or other fixed abutment. The spring 19 therefore performs a dual functionnamely, to move the dog 12 in a direction toward the ratchet-face of the register-slide and also to reset or return the plunger to normal position when the same is relieved from pressure.

There is associated with the plunger or dog carried thereby a release-button 20, having a shank 21,extending through a slot 22,formed in one side of the casing and rigidly connected at its inner end with the actuating-dog of the plunger. By drawing outward upon the release-button 20 the point of the dog is drawn away from the plane of the ratchet-face of the register-slide, whereby the latter may be easily slid back into the casing. Also the shank 21 of the release-button cooperates with the slot 22 to restrict the movement or play of the dog to the distance of a ratchettooth at a time.

To prevent lost or backward movement of the register-slide when the dog is passing to a new tooth, there is associated with the register-slide a friction-check 23. This frictioncheck is preferably in the form of a coiled spring seated in the register-slide and hearing against the adjacent side of the casin From the foregoing it is thought that the manner of using the adding-pencil will be apparent. Assuming that the addition is to be carried on by tens, the operator takes the pencil or device, and beginning to add the column of figures when the sum added reaches ten a downward pressure upon the point 17 will cause the register-slide to be projected through the end opening 8 a distance to indicate on the scale that one ten has been passed in the addition. Dismissing from the mind the ten recorded, the operator only considers whatever unit above ten he may have had at the time of registering. These units are added to the next figure, and the operator proceeds to make a new record. When another ten is reached, the same is recorded in the same manner as before, and whatever units may be carried over after the last register is made for the column such units will constitute the figure to be set below the column added up by the register-slide.

It will of course be understood that various changes in the form, proportion, and minor details of construction may be made within the scope of the invention without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages thereof.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed, and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is-

1. In an adding device of the class described, the casing, a graduated register-slide working within and outside of the casing, a reciprocatory plunger carrying an actuating member cooperating with the slide to impart thereto a step-by-step movement, and a single resetting device arranged to yieldingly hold the actuating member in engagement with the slide and also to yieldingly thrust the plunger in the direction of its reciprocation.

2. In an adding device of the class described, the casing, a graduated ratchet-bar slidably mounted within the casing and constituting a register-slide, a reciprocatory operating-plunger having an exposed pressure point and carrying at its inner end an actu ating-dog rigid therewith and having a side point engaging the ratchet-teeth of the slide, means for yieldingly maintaining the dog in engagement with the ratchet-teeth, and a release-button also rigidly connected with the plunger and projecting to a point exterior of the casing.

3. In an adding device of the class described, the casin g, a graduated register slide working within and outside of the casing and provided with ratchet-teeth, a reciprocatory plunger having an exposed pressure-point and carrying at its inner end an actuatingdog whose point engages the ratchet-teeth of the slide, and a single resetting-spring cooperating with the plunger and dog, and arranged at an angle to provide for yieldiugly pressing the dog in a lateral direction and also for thrusting the plunger in a longitudinal direction.

a. In an adding device of the class described, a casing having a longitudinal guide- Way, a slot, and an end opening, a guide-tube projecting beyond one end of the casing, a graduated register-slide working within the said guideway and through the end opening of the casiu g, said slide having ratchet-teeth, a plunger-stem extending through the casing and guide-tube and provided with an exposed pressure-point, said plunger-stem also carrying at its inner end a dog whose point coopcrates with the ratchet-teeth of the slide, a single resetting-spring cooperating with the plunger-stem and its dog, and a release-button rigidly connected with the plunger and having its shank arranged to work within the slot in the casing.

5. In an adding device of the class described, the combination of the casing having at one side thereof a longitudinal guidelib way, agraduated register-slide mounted with- In testimony whereof I affix my signature in the casing and fitting the guideway therein presence of two witnesses. of, means for actuating said slide, and a coiled HORACE A SMITH friction-spring seated within the register- 5 slide upon the side opposite the guideway and Vitnesscs:

having one end exerting a pressure against J NO. M. BURTON, the adjacent Wall of the casing. R. L. BECK. 

